Saturday, January 01, 2005

Is My Blog Burning 11 – Beans, beans, the musical fruit…

I have been stumped for weeks trying to think of a different tag line for IMBB 11, but that little chant from childhood just wouldn’t go away. So be it. This is the eleventh edition of Alberto’s creation, Is My Blog Burning, in which bloggers the world over come together to celebrate a food, a dish, or a cooking method and share the results. This time the theme is beans and the date is January 23rd, 2005.

What kind of beans? Anything your heart desires. I will only go so far as to define a bean as a legume (so jelly beans and coffee beans are out). The beans can be dried, fresh, canned, in the pod or not, or they could even be sprouted. They can be kidney beans, black-eyed peas, black beans, chickpeas, brown lentils, red lentils, chana dal, green beans, fava beans, navy beans, pinto beans, you name it. Prepare your creation on or before the 23rd, and then tell us all about it in a post to your blog on the 23rd. Once you’ve posted send me an email with the link to your entry. If you don’t have a blog and you’d like to participate, by all means do! Just email your entry to me and I will post it on my blog. Either way, it will be helpful to those of us tasting your entry virtually, if you include photos and a recipe (or a link to a recipe) if possible. On or about the 24th I will post a wrap-up so we can all find our way to every single beanie post.

As you may know, in some cultures beans are served on New Year’s Day and thought to bring luck or prosperity. For example, black-eyed peas are served in a dish called Hoppin’ John in the southern U.S. states and are thought to bring good luck in the new year. You may be eating your beans a little late, but here’s hoping they bring you a new year of peace, health and prosperity. Happy New Year to all!

I am a newbie to IMBB so have tons of questions, hope you don't mind. Do beans have to be the main ingredient of the dish? Or can it just be one of the main ingredients? And does the recipe have to be original or can you use/modify a recipe from a cookbook and just reference it?

Hi Lynn - I'm happy to answer any questions you have. There really aren't many rules - you can use the beans however you like with whatever other ingredients you choose. It doesn't have to be an original recipe, but there are some things to think about before you post someone else's recipe on your blog. Here are a couple of links with some discussion on that topic: kitchen conference topic - Recipes and copyrights and IMBB forum topic - Food Blogs and Other People's Recipes. What I generally do is find a recipe on-line and link to it or make up an original recipe. Often an "original" recipe is based another published recipe, and if that's the case it's a good idea to credit the source of that recipe.

I hope you will decide to participate in IMBB 11 - it really is a lot of fun!

You are such a sweetheart. I am a total dunce when it comes to this blogging stuff. I really can't figure out how to make a comment here...much less make a link to my blog. But somehow I'll figure it out on the 23rd!

Anon - don't worry, all you need to do is post and send me an email (OK, I guess you do have to send me the link, but it can just be typed out) - I'll post a link to your blog in the round-up. Anyway, I'm glad you'll be joining in on the festivities on the 23rd!

Jeanne - hi! You're in England, right? I didn't realize baked beans were a big thing there! When I think of baked beans I think of Boston. Anyway, I'm glad you'll be there on the 23rd!!

About Me

My name is Cathy and I live in a Maryland suburb of Washington DC in the USA. I love to cook, but have had a tendency to do it strictly by the book. I love to eat too, but have an unfortunately long list of dislikes. It's time for a change.